RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The woman trying to unseat Virginia House Speaker William J. Howell in next month’s GOP primary says the board of elections has given her opponent an unfair advantage.
The Washington Post reports (https://wapo.st/1c9KBHk ) that Susan Stimpson says she wasn’t properly notified of the board’s recent decision on absentee voting policy.
At a May 13 meeting, the board clarified that voters could submit electronic signatures on absentee ballot request forms. The clarification came after requests from Howell’s campaign, whose website has a page that allows voters to requests absentee ballots with electronic signatures.
Stimpson said she doesn’t disagree with the board’s decision, but said she was put at an unfair disadvantage because she wasn’t properly notified of the decision.
“This is called cheating,” she said. “This is taking people’s very basic right to vote and trampling on it. This is the culture in Richmond over which Bill Howell has presided, and it’s exactly why I’m running.”
Matthew Moran, a spokesman for Howell, called Stimpson’s allegations “bizarre.”
“We were just simply seeking clarification on the law. As we were setting up our absentee ballot system, we were just doing our due diligence on electronic signatures,” Moran said.
Stimpson is a former Howell protégé who accuses her former ally of abandoning his small government principles and of secretly supporting liberal causes.
She’s hoping to pull off an upset similar to U.S. Rep. Dave Brat’s victory last year over then-U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. But Howell has a large cash advantage and two key Stimpson campaign staffers have recently quit.
The primary for the Fredricksburg-area House seat is June 9.
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Information from: The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com
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